Balancing Act

Life requires balance. Until it doesn’t.

While this statement might appear contradictory, it holds a deeper truth – especially for anyone who’s trying to start their own business while still holding down a 9-to-5 job. Achieving balance is feasible when you aim to excel in a traditional job and maintain a healthy personal life. The equation quickly changes, however, when you add starting and growing a new business into the mix.

During the early stages of Carbliss, we encountered this phenomenon firsthand. The path to success demanded an uneven allocation of time and energy, challenging the conventional understanding of “balance.” In this article, I want to discuss what it takes to start a business while still maintaining a steady job, help you determine when you’re ready to go all-in on your business, and offer a few pieces of personal advice to help get you there.?

So let’s start at the beginning, where all businesses are born.?

Carbliss started as an idea – a concept we believed in. While it felt good, ideas by themselves don’t get you anywhere. I know countless people who have fantastic ideas. They scheme them up, flesh them out, and then do absolutely nothing with them. That’s why I believe in the power of implementation, especially when it’s combined with speed. If you want to build a successful business, you can’t stop at the ideation phase. You have to keep going.

For Carbliss, the leap from having an idea to putting a product on a shelf took a solid year of hard work. Initially, it was like shouldering an extra part-time job on top of my regular 9-to-5. Building Carbliss from the ground up consumed my nights and weekends. My wife and I were deeply involved with every aspect of the business – designing labels, crafting the brand, finding manufacturers, and developing flavors.?

I’m not kidding when I say that we poured every spare minute into Carbliss. The concept of “free time” went out the window. We traded our hobbies and social life for long hours of work on Carbliss. I'd clock out from my day job only to dive right back into work, often until the early morning hours. And my wife did the same. That was our new normal.

I can admit it now. The grind took its toll on our family. We had to choose work over family time for countless evenings and weekends. It’s a tough pill to swallow, realizing you’re sacrificing those precious moments. It’s part of the entrepreneurial journey that many don’t see – the behind-the-scenes grind that tests your limits and forces you to make hard choices. It was about bringing an idea to life, making it tangible, and getting it to the market.

This early stage was a crash course in what it takes to turn a dream into reality. It required rolling up our sleeves and doing the real, gritty, in-the-trenches work. And through it all, my wife and I knew that we still had a responsibility to uphold to our employers.?

Balancing our day jobs with growing a new business was no walk in the park, but it was non-negotiable. We both firmly believe that if someone is paying you a salary, you owe them your best – no half-measures. So, even with Carbliss pulling us in a thousand different directions, our commitments to our 9-to-5 jobs never wavered.?

It was about integrity, giving our all during work hours, and ensuring the companies that employed us got what they were paying for. It was a tightrope walk, managing job responsibilities while fueling our entrepreneurial dreams, and like I said, it took its toll.?

Remember that as you start your entrepreneurial journey. You don’t want to leave your workplace worse off than when you arrived. And you never know when a plan B might come in handy. If you leave your place of work on good terms, they’re more likely to welcome you back if your business doesn’t take off.?

Knowing exactly when to take that leap to full-time business owner is also tricky. For me, the decision hinged on a frank conversation with my wife, an accountant, who brought her financial perspective. The actual test came early on with two major operational issues at Carbliss. The business would have collapsed if I’d left my day job too soon.?

It was getting the green light from my wife, coupled with securing an angel investor, that signaled the right time to take a calculated pay cut and leave my 9-to-5 job behind. The lesson? Before taking the plunge, you need to understand the right moment to commit and ensure you have the proper support and financial backup. If you have those bases covered, it’s time to go all in.?

Of course, this is only possible with the right mindset. To understand what it takes, here’s my advice…

Brace yourself for some tough choices. First, understand what you’re willing to sacrifice. Can you handle a pay cut? Because trading a steady corporate paycheck for the unpredictable income of a startup requires guts and a solid financial plan.

Second, know your business’s financial runway. You need enough money to launch. And you need enough to sustain yourself and the company until you start seeing returns. This transition demands laser-focused effort and an unwavering commitment. Be prepared to dive deep into your business, often at the cost of personal comforts and leisure.

If you consider those two aspects at the start, you’re well on your way to success.?

Starting an entrepreneurial journey is no small feat. It’s a path filled with challenges, sacrifices, and learning curves, as my Carbliss journey has shown. However, it’s also a path of immense potential and personal growth.

The key takeaways? Here’s my advice:

1. Embrace Imbalance: True entrepreneurship means sacrificing the traditional work-life balance for the sake of your business vision. That may not be your take, and I applaud you. Also, best of luck!
2. Action Over Ideas: Having ideas is great. Implementing ideas is better. Dreams need to move into action. A dream is only a dream if you don’t believe in yourself.
3. Sacrifice and Dedication: The path to building a successful business is paved with personal sacrifices, especially of your time and social life.
4. Professional Integrity: Upholding your responsibilities at your day job is as important as building your entrepreneurial dream. It helps build character and provides you with a solid plan B, and in my opinion, is the right thing to do. After all, you’re starting a business, wouldn’t you expect the same from your team?
5. Strategic Transition Timing: The shift from employee to entrepreneur should be based on solid financial planning, support, and extreme accountability of your personal and business financials
6. Focus and Effort: Unwavering commitment and concentrated effort are non-negotiable in the entrepreneurial world.
7. Balance Realism and Optimism: Approach your entrepreneurial journey with a realistic understanding of its challenges and optimism about its rewards. Do not reward yourself too soon; this can turn into turmoil quickly.

As you stand at the crossroads of corporate stability and entrepreneurial uncertainty, remember that this journey, while demanding, can be very rewarding. And for those of us who take the leap, the rewards are worth all the sacrifice and risk.?

Approach it with a blend of optimism and realism, and who knows? You may be on your way to creating something remarkable.